City Council to consider measure at Tuesday's meeting

Chris Koury puts groceries in a paper bag for a customer while working the cash register at Alfalfa's Market on Broadway in May. The City Council this week will begin considering a 20-cent fee on the use of paper and plastic grocery bags. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera file photo)

A controversial proposal to charge Boulder shoppers 20 cents for every disposable bag -- paper or plastic -- that they use at area grocery stores heads back to the City Council on Tuesday.

The Boulder City Council supported the idea of a fee in theory back in May, despite the desire of several council members to simply ban plastic bags outright. That was before a consultant recommended that the fee be 20 cents to reflect the full cost to the city, retailers and waste management companies of dealing with disposable bags.

In public meetings on the proposed bag fee, most participants expressed support for the fee. However, in online comments collected by the city, negative comments greatly outnumbered positive ones. Some opponents wanted a complete ban on plastic, but most called the fee an unfair tax that would disproportionately affect the poor and those on fixed incomes.

City officials said some of the money collected in fees would be used to provide reusable bags to low-income populations, while the rest would go to educating shoppers about the benefits of reusable bags. Retailers would get to keep 4 cents to cover their costs.

The fee would apply to all paper and plastic bags at food retailers, including grocery stores, convenience stores and Target. Gas station stores would be exempt if food sales account for less than 2 percent of their business.

The fee would not apply to the bags used to collect produce or protect glass bottles from breaking.

At India's Grocery, owner Raj Mehta said he fully supports the bag fee for the same environmental reasons put forward by fee advocates.

"Where is plastic going to go?" he asked. "It's going to pile up."

He's already started keeping cardboard boxes for customers to use and informing them of the coming changes.

"Money is the thing that will make them stop," he said of people who don't bring their own bags to the store.

But Mary Lou Chapman, president of the Rocky Mountain Food Industry Association, which represents most Colorado grocery stores, said her members would prefer educational efforts over a fee.

"The grocers have never been supportive of the issue," she said. "We've always preferred education as well as voluntary programs as first steps rather than jumping into costs or mandatory things for customers."

However, a fee that allows retailers to keep some of the money to cover costs is better than one that doesn't, and a fee is better than a ban on plastic bags, which some area activists had pushed, she said. Chapman said she wasn't sure, though, whether 4 cents a bag would cover the additional administrative costs of reprogramming computerized cash registers and retraining employees.

"Anything helps because it does cost to do things like this," she said. "Whether that covers that cost or helps us to like the program, I can't say that."

Lucky's Market in north Boulder only offers paper bags, as does Whole Foods. Lucky's owner Bo Sharon said he didn't know enough about the proposed bag fee to comment on it.

Business sustainability specialist Jamie Harkins said Whole Foods representatives preferred on a ban on plastic bags to a fee on all bags. However, paper bags have their own environmental problems, and some activists and city officials feared a ban on plastic bags would cause people to use more disposable paper bags instead of reusable bags.

The City Council voted 7-1 to support the idea of a fee on disposable bags in May. Councilman George Karakehian voted "no," and Councilwoman Suzy Ageton was absent.

Karakehian could not be reached for comment Friday.

Councilman Tim Plass said he was surprised that the study recommended a 20-cent fee, but the program needs to pay for itself and shouldn't be a burden on retailers.

Ideally, the city won't collect much in fees after the first year because everyone will use reusable bags.

"If I went to King Soopers and used six bags and it was an extra $1.20, I think next time I would remember to get my bags from behind my seat," he said. "It will be interesting to see how Boulder responds. A lot of this can be avoided by bringing your own bag."

The ordinance is scheduled for a first reading Tuesday. If the fee gets City Council approval, it would be scheduled for a second reading and a public hearing Oct. 16.

City officials have proposed that the ordinance not go into effect until July to give shoppers time to adjust their habits.

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